we are always asked
to understand the other person’s
viewpoint
no matter how
out—dated

we had goldfish and they circled a
in the bowl on the table near the
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting
to be happy, told me, ‘be happy He

To give life you must take life,
and as our grief falls flat and ho
upon the billion—blooded sea
I pass upon serious inward—breakin
with white—legged, white—bellied r

August 12, 1986
Hello John:
Thanks for the good letter. I don
You know my old saying, “Slavery
And what hurts is the steadily dim

I had just won $115 from the heads
was naked upon my bed
listening to an opera by one of th
and had just gotten rid of a very
when there was a knock upon the wo

and the sun wields mercy
but like a jet torch carried to hi
and the jets whip across its sight
and rockets leap like toads,
and the boys get out the maps

I can remember starving in a
small room in a strange city
shades pulled down, listening to
classical music
I was young I was so young it hur

she was hot, she was so hot
I didn’t want anybody else to have
and if I didn’t get home on time
she’d be gone, and I couldn’t bear
I’d go mad. . .

self-congratulatory nonsense as th
famous gather to applaud their see
greatness
you
wonder where

lonely as a dry and used orchard
spread over the earth
for use and surrender.
shot down like an ex—pug selling
dailies on the corner.